


Edd's Sky

by GuiltyConscience



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types, No Man's Sky (Video Game)
Genre: IN SPACE!, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-19 20:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8223604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuiltyConscience/pseuds/GuiltyConscience
Summary: The four guys are adventuring in space, but this time there's more than just a few aliens and neighbors in the star system. A Eddsworld No Man's Sky Crossover. 
Tom was the first to see the incoming ships. While he was making some repairs, after a jump through a black hole damaged their warp drive, He saw some movement out of the corner of his eye that caught his attention. While the silence of space kept ships covered for a time, the light from their engines made them stand out against the dark sky. The shield around their own ship protected Tom from the non-existent atmosphere, solar radiation, and cold, cold space but if those ships attacked and shattered the shield he would be dead meat.





	1. Space Jam

Tom was the first to see the incoming ships. While he was making some repairs, after a jump through a black hole damaged their warp drive, He saw some movement out of the corner of his eye that caught his attention. While the silence of space kept ships covered for a time, the light from their engines made them stand out against the dark sky. The shield around their own ship protected Tom from the non-existent atmosphere, solar radiation, and cold, cold space but if those ships attacked and shattered the shield he would be dead meat.

"We've got incoming ships guys!"

"How many are there? Do you have enough time to finish the repairs before they get too close?" Edd's voice wavers with worry.

"Maybe they're friendly?" Matt tries to sound optimistic but even his voice is pitched with a hint of fear.

"Not likely." Tord cuts in and continues with bad news. "He'll have to finish it, we can't go anywhere with the warp drive and pulse engine down."

"Not to mention the Phase Beam is out..." Edd mentions weakly.

Tom growls as the list grows. The multi-tool happily chugs away at its own pace. Nice. And. Slow.

"Just hurry up and finish the warp drive and get back in here!" Tord nags and then adds, "I want my multi-tool back." 

Tom practically snarls in frustration as he glimpses at the ships coming nearer. "I'm going as fast as I can!" He slams the repair hatch closed and jets over to the drive on the other side. "And you would have your multi-tool if you just gave me the blue prints for the repair component so I could use my own multi-tool but, noooooo."

"You wouldn't even know how to install it! Your multi-tool wouldn't be able to light a mach if it wasn't for me, and half the things I do install you use to attract every damn sentinel on the planet -"

"Guys! Guys, come on, that's not helping anything. Look I'll start looking for the next system to warp to, Matt go fuel the drive, Tord leave Tom alone, and Tom, just... keep doing what you're doing."

Tom hears muttering over the coms as he wrenches open the hatch to the other drive. 

"I'll be in the emergency escape pod" Tord announces, "Just in case Tom fucks up."

"Tord!" Edd scolds

Tom fall for the bait but doesn't let it distract him from his task, the ships are close enough he can see they're hostiles with beams and blasters ready. "Fuck you Tord, if you're actually in the escape pod when I get inside I'm ejecting you. I'm sure you'd get along better with the space pirates anyways." 

"Tom!" Edd cries exasperatedly. 

"Fuck you, maybe I will." Tord threatens.

"Pirates!" Matt quails.

And the ships begin to rain hell on their shield.

Tom hears echoes of alarms on the com and grapples with his safety harness for stability as the shield shakes from the attacks. Tords multi-tool sputters mid-repair and Tom nearly screams in frustration as he has to wait for it to cool down before using it again. 

The three inside the ship are talking over each other and the ship suddenly lurches into motion jerking Tom off balance.

"Guys! Edd! I can't do repairs when the ship is moving like this!" 

They don't hear Tom over the alarms and their own squabbling so he grits his teeth and lays across the wing for stability and hopes the multi-tool can't make the warp drive any worse as he fires it blindly into the repair hatch. The ships shield begins to flicker and crack as the waves of plasma bolts and phase beams continue to rain down.

"Tom! Tom!" Edd's voice rises above the panic, "We're going to head for the planet, just... Hold tight!"

The ship picks up speed but not nearly enough to outrun the pirates. The atmosphere of the planet is nearly within reach but they'll need a miracle to get there before-

The shield drops.

Tom lets out a panicked whine as his hazard suit begins to notify him of all the issues. 

-Warning High Radiation Levels Detected-  
-Warning High Temperatures Detected-  
-Warning Low Temperatu-

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shutup! Ah!"

A plasma bolt narrowly misses Tom and he abandons the repair hatch for shelter under the wing.

"Guys! Get the shield back up! The Shield! Ghu-"

The amount of noise and panic going on over the com from the ship and the others is such a sharp contrast to the dead silence outside. Tom shuts off the com to focus. They couldn't hear him anyways.

He imagines this is what it's like to be deaf. He doesn't hear the blasts coming but he can feel them as they hit the ship, the vibrations, the heat under his gloves, the pressure, like wind against his suit. 

He can't catch his breath, when did that happen? 

He presses against the side of the ship, under the wing, hand over his chest trying to steady his breaths. If he stays like this they're going to die. If he goes out there he may be shot, or get hurt, but if he doesn't go out there they will die. 

"Tom! Fix the stupid ship!" Tord cuts through the silence as he overrides the coms. Fuck him and his ability to hack every damn thing.

Tom wheezily shakes his head in defiance but is already climbing back up onto the wing to finish the repair. 

Tord must hear Tom's ragged breathing cause he swears over the com, connecting just the two of them clearly, as there's no blaring of warnings from the ship. That or he really is in the escape pod.

"Tom." Tord intones, "Tom, I need you to focus."

Tom is still shaking his head, taking shuddering breaths, and repairing the warp drive. A peppering of shots from a mining beam scorch the wing mere inches from him. He flinches violently bashing his hand on the hatch lid. 

"You and I both know we're not going to make it to the planet before the ship is destroyed."

Tom uses the hatch lid as a shield as the same ship as before shoots at him again. Another of the ships comes at him from behind but misses him by a wide shot. That doesn't stop him from shouting in shock.

Tords voice has raised to an angry drawl. "Look, while you are out there cowering under the wing, we are doing everything we can in here to get the ship ready for a jump so FIX THE DAMN DRIVE!"

Tom laughs.

"You calling me a coward?" He slams the hatch closed and slides across the wing to make his way to the ship doors. "I'd like to see you trying to do anything out here! When was the last time you were in the cockpit?"

Tord sputters over the com before fiercely insisting "I am in the cockpit!"

Tom climbs along the side of the ship fighting against the air pressure of the moving ship and continues. "Really? Then you should have know from the screen there that I've already fixed the drive and since you didn't, that means you're hiding in the escape pod."

Tom makes a bold leap for the door narrowly being missed by another stream of shots.

"Like the coward you are."

Tord makes a weak noise of protest and Tom grasps the door handle tightly, turns his coms back on all way, and gets ready to enter the ship.

"Tord! Where are you?! Tom fixed the Warp Drive two minutes ago, we're going to jump as soon as you both get here." Edds calls just as a warning from the ship blares.

-Critical DamAage TaKEn_=-

Matt shouts out in panic.

The escape pod ejects.

Tom is shot away from the door by the ship with the mining beam.

And just as they enter the planet's atmosphere...

A phase beam cuts the ship in half.


	2. The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Opps! Looks like were not in space anymore, Edd awakes on a planet with more than a broken ship to deal with and the adventure has barely even started.

Edd wakes to the gentle calls of his life support systems.

-WARNING LIFE SUPPORT FALLING BELOW 25%-

He groans and tiredly reaches back for his pack, missing several times, to pull out the needed resources to recharge his systems. Once the technology was satisfied with his offering he finally opens his eyes to see where he had landed.

Delicate looking magenta fronds wave in the breeze above him. The sky is a lovely light blue and thick with cotton white clouds. Something about the sky makes him feel nostalgic and he stares at the clouds for several minutes before the sun breaks through and he has to avert his eyes. To his right plants with broad golden-yellow leaves on heavy stalks fill in spaces between large slate coloured stones. Soft pink grasses brush the side of his helmet and he runs his hands through the grass at his side. He tugs at the grass absent mindedly and then tries to digs his hands into the soil. He finds his grasp too weak to pull up a blade or sink into the sandy earth.  His sense of touch has never been all that sensitive because of the gloves of his hazard suit but right now he can barely feel the grass or soil at all. His motor skills were weak and sluggish. What was going on?

Slowly lifting himself up on his elbows he tries to balance out his weight by bringing a knee up to his chest but falls back when it doesn't comply.

He tries to roll over and drag his legs over to the side but, they don't respond.

He tries to wiggle his toes, flex his feet, nothing.

Cold panic trickles into his veins. He looks at the speed that his life support system is dropping at determines-

He's broken his spine.

He can't feel his legs, or waist for that matter. He has no doubt his systems have heavily dosed him with morphine to fight the pain.

What happened?

He struggles to pull himself up against a rock, beginning to feel the ache of broken bones, and takes a real look around to see the warped and chard shards of metal surrounding him. They...crashed? No, no that's not right. His brow furrows and he closes his eyes trying to remember. Hand rising to where his chin would be under his helmet.

They were leaving one star system to go to the next using a black hole. The warp drive, and several other systems, died on them during the trip. Tom went out to fix it then...Ships?

Pirates!

Edds eyes snapped open "Tom!"

He remembers Tom getting shot at. Did he ever make it into the ship? Clearly they made it to the planet's atmosphere in time to fall down to it but, man he is lucky to have survived _that_. He quietly thanks his super powers, and his suit, for his durability, he definitely would have died without them. He hopes the other guys landed safely, he doesn't know their suits limits as well as they do. For all he knows they could have died and only dark graves from the atlas would show their fate. Their soul would remain in the system waiting to respawn at a space station when he made it there with a ship for them to store their data on. It was an unpleasant process they'd all experienced at one time or another.  Waiting in the system was emptier and colder then space ever would be.

He could only hope everyone had made it down safely.

Edd takes a deep breath to calm down and organize his thoughts, he should assess what's working and what's not. He should also inventory what he has left in his pack and come up with a plan for what to do next.

Everything above his waist seems to be in working order everything else would need more time to heal, again _thank you_ life support system. His multi-tool is missing. (There goes his chance to scan, mine, and defend/attack.) He still has the items that were originally in his pack, minus the zinc he used to recharge his life support, and one of Matt's... things.

After going through what he had on hand Edd goes through his hazard suit systems and shields as well. His thermic layer had gone down a bit, he must have missed an extreme night time temperature warning from his suit while he was out. He'd have to find shelter soon, if that was the case. His coolant network was running on fumes, it must have been used up during the fall through the atmosphere so he didn't burn to a crisp. He looked up and winced at the thought of falling all that distance glad he wasn't conscious at the time that happened. His radiation deflector had dropped marginally too among all the other things. Considering his suit accommodated for the radiation he output normally, for his radiation deflector to have gone down he would have had to been exposed to some _serious_ radiation. Although that wasn't all that surprising if he fell through an entire upper atmosphere. There was a lot more solar radiation up there than down on the planet. Finally his initial shield had taken quite a hit, no doubt from the landing, and his toxin suppressor hadn't changed since the last planet they had been on.

Edd recharges all his systems and remaining equipment and sighs, at the rate he was using his zinc right now he was going to run out soon. So first on the to-do list; shelter and resources would be needed, then he'd need a ship, and then find everyone else. Or find every one and then get a ship, whichever came first.

Great.

A gentle breeze tossed some dust into the air around the scattered debris of their ship. He could see the pieces formed a trail out towards water off on the distant horizon. He sighed knowing he'd have a long trek ahead of him.

It was time to move. Tipping to the side Edd spots an overhang with a decent sized cave for him to hunker down in for the night and slowly drags himself to the entrance. After a long crawl, with some pauses for rest, he reaches the cavern which is rather spacious and looks to contain some resources he would need to restock his bag. With no multi-tool he had to resort to breaking stones, plants, and crystals down with his gloved hands, not ideal but it would have to do.

He was lucky enough to stumble on some titanium crystals to substitute zinc for his life support systems. The titanium would last much longer than zinc would, he thinks as his system nags him for a recharge again. Maybe after the night was up he'd be able to walk again. Maybe that was hopeful thinking...

Exhausted and aching after dragging himself around and beating down rocks and plants for resources Edd decides to call it a day and tucks himself into a safe corner for the night. He watches the sun set in the sky from blue to lilac, plum to rich deep purple, and finally midnight black with a delicate scattering of distant stars and worlds.

He sleeps.

And misses the first half of Matt's panicked calls.


	3. Black Hole Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt dreams, wakes, and begins his adventure on the left foot.

Matt dreams of floating through space.

His voice echoes across space bouncing off asteroids and planets as he calls out for his friends. He is falling into darker space, asteroids slowly become more distant. He fears moving will make him go farther into the darkness so he remains still and drifts for a bit, uneasy in the silence, and no one responds to his calls.

This goes on for awhile until there's a quiet roar in the distance as a red ship approaches. It's headed right for him and shows no signs of slowing down, it's not going to be picking him up if it keeps going like that. Matt tries to move out of the way but feels sluggish and slow, struggling to even look over his shoulder. The ship is less than a foot ball field from him and Matt manages to get a glimpse of what is in the darkness  behind him.

Two black suns. Or... black holes?

While Matt was staring at the two dark spots in the sky, the ship flies straight _through_ him, he gasps as he's pushed farther into darkness, and the ship crashes into an asteroid hidden by the darkness. The explosion from the ship lights up Tom's face and Matt sighs in relief. They never were black holes, just Tom's eyes. Matt finds them both standing in empty dark space together both frozen at attention and listens as something comes whispering over his com. Tom is trying to say something but he's so far away...

"-d?...M-Matt?........Gu-.....lo?.....ny one....ar m..-"

Tom grows more and more distant.

"What?" Matt stands, (or is he floating again?), on a small planet looking up into the sky toward Tom getting so far, far away. What did Tom say?

"M-!..att!....? t? Ed....?" Tom might as well be on another planet with how bad the com is. He sounds really panicked, which is unusual. Tom is usually pretty level headed, with the exception of when Tor-...Todd? Tim? Torm? That red guy is around, so if Tom is panicking something must be very wrong.

Matt feels like frowning takes a lot of effort and reaches out to grab Tom but nothing is there but static.

The dark envelopes the planet he's standing on and begins to swallow him up too, Matt lets out a panicked cry and he wakes up.

 

He opens his eyes to darkness and the quiet murmur of distant life. The interface on his helmet glows softly, several bars are very low in resources and  another is steadily dropping without a word of warning from his systems. He floats in the darkness enjoying the sense of calm around him after the nightmare.

 It takes Matt several minutes to focus and realize that it's the bar for his aeration membrane that is currently dropping. The aeration membrane that lets him _breath underwater_. Sure enough when he moves he's met with the resistance of liquid and the horror sets in. Matt cries out in shock, he doesn't want to drown! How far has he sunk?

He turns trying to find light that would hint at the surface and nearly misses it with how dim it is, his building panic not helping with the task. Once he manages to face what little light he can see he races for the surface with his jet pack and hopes he can reach it before his air runs out.

The water begins to brighten and he starts to see plants, corals, and coloured stone as he rises. Something darts quite close to him on occasion but with his jet pack boosting him it's left far behind to his relief. He's still deep, deep down in the water though.  The aeration membrane loses power as he rushes past a tall column of stone and he struggles to hold his breath. His life support system is now dropping, unable to replace the oxygen being used, fast enough. He can see a faint glimmer of light reflected on the surface having just that much farther to go, scattering a school of fish, his life support at less than 50% nearing the 25% mark.

Just a little bit father...!

He rips through something like sea weed scattering small crustacean like creatures that snap angrily at him as he passes. 7% left on life support and he has no oxygen left to breath.

Hand outstretched, lungs begging for air, his head feels like it's being crushed and lifted into space all at once. He sees the dancing outlines of two distant moons.  

Matt shoots out of the water, his jet pack switching into air propulsion making him boost far higher into the sky than he needs but letting him get a brief glimpse of the planet before he falls back into the water as it cuts out.

The loud splash sends a flock of winged creatures into the sky with startled cries. Matt's com crackles with noise and static but his focus is on getting to shore. He doesn't plan on being fish food anytime soon. He makes it to a rocky beach and lays there panting for a minute before his ears finally pick up on the feed coming through on his communicator.

The com crackles intermittently like it's broken or catching a very distant transmission. Even with the fiddling Tim, Toby? Todd? Did on his com to expand the range, it should cut out bad feeds and send error messages to the sender instead. Why was this broken feed still coming through? When the com clears a bit a harsh and panicked breathing breaks through, not unlike that from a horror film, and Matt immediately turns it off.

He is not having a good day. He takes a minute to find a sheltered cave, making sure there were no monsters or psycho killers in it, and he takes a deep breath and hesitantly turns the com back on.

"Edd? Tom? Ter-Tor-T-errr.... Guys? Hello?"  the system beeps to confirm the sent message and begins to crackle again.

"Tt?tssss......."

"lea..ssssshfffff......me?....."

Matt curls up further almost in an attempt to hide but also listen closer.

"Ma-ckkrrrrrrr......ssssssss.....elp..."

"Help?" Matt's voice squeaks out at first before steadying, "Do you need help?" They have taken some distress signals before but never like this.

"...es!.ckkkrkrkkskssssss....Pl....fshhhhh.....At!..."

Yes? Was that a yes? Something clatters in the cave he's in and he nearly jumps a foot in the air shutting off the com again to listen and look around for anything that might attack him. When the echoes of air and water in the cave get creepier then the transmission he was listening to he turns it back on.

"Sorry, I missed that, what did you say? The radio is all fuzzy and you keep breaking up."

"kfffffshhhhhh...sssssss............shhaaaaaaaa......"

"ffppfpfffff......ckcrrrkkckrrksksks..."

"ckrrrrk! -           "

The feed drops and Matt begins to freak out more.

"Edd! Edd! There was someone on the radio and Tom! You've got to help, they need help! We have to, we have to... Ted you can pick up the signal right? I'll send it to you! I'll send it..."

Matt trails off, no one is responding, are they hurt? Sleeping? Maybe they're out of range?

What happened? Why did he wake up so deep underwater in the first place? Did they crash? Is that why they're not responding? His head hurts...

Matt holds his throbbing head in his hands, stupid memory loss, it was still effecting his ability to remember things. He lets out a shout of frustration and regrets it when the cave echoes it back tenfold making his headache worse.

Fine _, fine_. He can deal with this.

He stands up with a grim look of determination on his face and leaves a message for the guys.

"This is Matt, I'm on a planet with water and caves..." He pauses to look out at the sky, "There are two moons, it's dark out I'm going to go..."

He chooses a direction at random. "Left."

That should help. He end the message and it confirms that it was sent to two recipients of three. 'Tord' was out of range and 'Toms' was sent but returned with an error, and 'Edds' was sent successfully. Matt frowned at the results but that'd would have to do for now.

-Extreme Night Time Temperatures Detected-

Of all the warnings the suit decided to give it was this one, Ted's fiddling with his systems left some bugs too, his suit no longer gave him warnings for anything but environmental hazards now. Matt finally notices the water that had iced over on his suit since it mentioned the chill temperatures.

"A cold night huh."

 The thermic layer on his suit begins to drop and he knows he needs to take quick action. While he could hang around in the cave he was in a moment ago, he didn't want to be waiting around until sunrise. So he recharges his systems, with his excessive stores of zinc and titanium, and heads left...

Away from the shrapnel of their crashed ship.

Away from Edd.


	4. Mars, the Bringer of War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord floats through space in an escape pod, does some thinking, and then declares war.

With his com off, Tord sat in silence and sighed. He was fiddling with the multi-tool he'd snagged from Edd during the attack and carefully dismantled unwanted modules. While he'd have preferred his own multi-tool he wouldn't be getting it back anytime soon. While Tom had probably, hopefully, Tord though, been shot down and lost in space, so to had Tord's multi-tool. He mourned the loss of it for a couple minutes but it wasn't so great a loss that he'd spend all day moping about it. After all, he still had the blueprints of the modules that made up his original multi-tool. The only down side to the swap was the number of spaces for modules on Edds tool were several less than his own, but that was nothing he couldn't deal with later.

While swapping out Edds modules for his own he reflects on the attack. While he would have preferred to keep Edd safe in the attack, they **had** been good friends, but he'd be better off without him in the end. Unfortunately with how things went Edd was stuck without a multi-tool and possibly stranded on a planet or stuck on the system waiting for Matt or Tom to bring him back. The thought made Tord feel uncomfortably guilty.

He pauses in his ministrations, running a gloved hand down the barrel of the multi-tool and rubbing his thumb along some groves on the side, absent mindedly staring out the window. Out of the three guys Edd was the only one he'd really miss.

He and Tom were notorious for their fights so there would be no loss there, good riddance, and it's not like Matt could miss him. The man forgot his name every ten seconds for goodness sake! Who's to say he'd remember Tord after a week of him being gone? In all honesty Tord would have rather taken Matt's tool instead, if he hadn't been running circles at the time. His tool probably would had an excessive number of slots too...

Tord sighs and pulls back the barrel of the newly installer bolt caster loading the first round in the gun. He fires a test shot into the floor of the pod and nods in satisfaction at the damage done.

"This will do for now."

The tool is strapped on to his hip and he goes through his supplies. There's not much else to do on the long trip to the space station.

He's well stocked on the basic elements required for the upkeep of his suit and systems, as always, and had extra oxides to account for Edds radiation. He wouldn't need those anymore...

He also had a good store of valuable resources built up in his pack and in the escape pod. He would use them to play with the stock market a bit so he could get the funds for a ship of his own.

He'd have to remove himself from Edds group on the system once he got to the space station. That way he could re-spawn on his own should he die and his ship would come along with him. Although before he does that he could probably check to see what their status is and where they were. He couldn't help but be curious and want to know.

He hopes if Tom isn't stranded on the planet they'd been close to that he'd died and got stuck on the system like he did that one time. For being a follower of Atlas, the system wasn't very good to him, rather ironic. While Tord maaaayyy have been the cause of that, due to messing with Tom's genes without him knowing, it still wasn't right for the system, the Atlas, to have control over the universe like that.

The Atlas was an ancient program that guarded the universe and planets with the sentinels. It was supposed to protect the people and creatures but where was its sentinels when they were attacked by pirates? Or when creatures attacked them? Why guard the resources of an empty planet when nothing was there that needed the resources? Sometimes they were attacked when even passively exploring a planet! Why did a machine have a say on what was right and wrong?

The escape pod shudders as it lands and Tord is shocked to find he had lost track of time in while in thought. Sure enough he's landed at a space station.

He climbs out and is met with cold walls and bright lights. His shadow fractured in several directions as he steps onto the runway into the open space. The escape pod is pulled away underground and Tord heads towards the back of the station where a ramp on the left lead to rooms where people can rest.

He approaches the door, which normally requires an Atlas pass to proceed, and swipes a bypass chip of his own making to open the door.

The main room has a large table and chairs in the middle, a vendor for pack upgrades, and there are potted plants at the edges of the room with some standing lights. A window looking out into space is on the far wall and off to the right is another door that requires another Atlas pass.

Tord sits at the table facing the entry way and taps the table surface bringing up a screen with his user Id and other notes.

As planned he checks the status of Edd, Matt, and Tom.

Edd is safely on the planet they'd been close to, Matt is there as well. They're about fifteen minutes walking distance from each other but that number was growing as the dot representing Matt slowly moved farther away. Was there a reason for that or was so slow he still didn't know how to use his compass properly? The compass would point him right to Edd, even a ship or a building, if only he knew how to use it. Tord shakes his head and checks his own heads up display on his helmet.

He notices he has a message from Matt and contemplates listening to it with his finger over the play button for a minute. He closes it instead and looks to see where Tom is at.

He is intrigued to see the system labels his whereabouts and status as an error. So either his system was fried in the fall to the planet the other guys were on, or he died and the system was struggling to process him again. Either way was a good result as it would keep the man out of his way for awhile. No more suspicious looks to stop him from his plans.

Tord closes his friends status and removes himself from Edds group. He goes through all the data entry required for stating a new group, but with separate ships, adds several contacts, and then logs out and heads to the galactic market terminal across from the guest rooms on the opposite ramp.

There he sells resources of value and then leaves to purchase a ship from the aliens coming and going on the runway.

He chooses a simple red ship with plenty of fire power and then contacts those he added to his new group.

"This is your commander Red Leader speaking."

A sharp grin grows on his face as he imagines a world without the Atlas.

"The first mission was a success."

"The Red Army is a go."


	5. Uranus, the Magician

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paul and Patryk crash another ship. Luckily this time they weren't in it... but their Boss was.

Patryk didn't have a lot of fire power on his ship but it could turn on a dime. He used this to his advantage making a quick turn back around to get another set of shots in with his plasma canon to break down the shield of the ship they were attacking.

The shield flickers under fire and Patryk can just barely see his target clinging to one of the wings. The figure seems to lose his grip as the ship shudders into motion and on the next fly by Pat can see he's keeping his body low for more stability.

Once the shield goes down his target should disappear into data particles as nothing can survive outside a ships boundaries in space. There's no atmosphere, nothing for the suit to work with to create breathable air. The conditions of space usually trigger suits to automatically recall the wearer to the system so that they can be respawned at a space station. Someone could last maybe ten minutes tops, Patryk thinks, with some life support and health modules but, without enough supplies to power it the stress of extreme cold, and radiation from the sun, the system wouldn't be able to keep up.  

This is not what happens when the shield goes down.

 His target is still clinging to the wing only looking mildly panicked, still trying to fix whatever was on the wing.

"How are you not _dead_!? Why aren't you GONE!?" Patryk growls in frustration.

"What? What's going on?" Paul asks over the coms.

"The stupid!... argh! Just... hold on I'll get him on the next way round. Oh!"

Another ship flies past Patryk shooting at their target making him dive under the wing for shelter.

"Crap."

Paul laughs at him over the com.

Patryk tries to maneuver around the ship to get a view of the man under the wing but he's in just the right spot where one of the jets hide him so Pat can't get a shot in.

"Dammit. Paul we might need to make a slight change in plans..."

Paul groans over the coms, "Boss 'ain't gonna like that."

As if summoned the man's voice breaks into their conversation, "Soldiers! Status report!"

Patryk snaps to attention out of habit back straight in his chair. "Sir, the shields down," there's a brief grumble of _'I know that'_  before Patryk continues, "But..."

He hesitates, and Tord barks "What?!"

"O-Our target it still out there, hiding under one of the wings."

A sigh of frustration "What the hell? Fucking god dammit Tom every time I swear..." He continues ranting for a while, something about breaking the laws of physics, ruining plans and swearing.  A _lot_ of swearing.

"Um... If I could make a suggestion...? Sir?" Paul asks nervously over Tords cursing.

"Fine, what is it?"

"If you get to the escape pod we could just... shoot the ship down?"

"No, I need Tom taken down alone. I cannot have them all dying and respawning together, they need to be separated so they stay out of my way." There's a brief pause on Tords side before he continues, "And I need a multi-tool."

That has Paul and Patryk pause for a moment. "What happened to your multi-tool?" Patryk ventures carefully.

Tord let's out an annoyed groan, "I lent it to Tom for repairs as an excuse to get him out of the ship."

"Why didn't you just give him the blu-"SH-Shut up!"

Patryk shuts up and Paul is clearly trying to hide his snickering over the com without disconnecting completely.

"Ahem, yes. So _anyway,_ once I get a multi-tool I'll head for the escape pod and prepare for launch. I will... persuade Tom out of hiding so you can shoot him." Tord clears his throat. "Other than that keep attacking the ship and herd it down to the planet but, do not, I repeat, do NOT destroy it. It must reach the planet so they remain separated as I mentioned before, got it?"

"Sir, yes Sir."

"Yes Boss!"

Tord leaves the com with a crackle and Patryk finds he had saluted with his reply despite the fact that there was no one to see it. His hand drops back to his controls and he focuses on task.

Tord must work fast because his target, Tom it seems he's called, has come out of hiding and, to Patryks surprise, rather than head straight for shelter in the ship he heads back to the hatch on the wing.

Pat takes his chance and stats shooting at the figure again but a little to the side so he can't dart under the wing again. His first few short miss but come quite close. His ship has drifted too far at this point so he has to turn round to go again.

By the time Patryk has turned around the man seems to have finished his repair and is making his way across the wing with some difficulty. Patryk lines up his shot as the man begins to stand and prepare for a jump. Pat thought the man would hesitate, as he shoots, but Tom goes for the jump and narrowly dodges Pat's shots again and he curses. The man is at the door of the ship and at this rate the mission is going to fail.

"Paul, can you get a shot in?"

"Let me see what I can do, I'm coming around again, Yuu is on his way to help now."

Yuu's shots are useless as they only hit the ship, but it's enough for Patryk to corner their target and force him to let go of the ship which _just_ manages enters the atmosphere of the planet.

And then promptly explodes.

"Shit! Paul!"

"Crap! Wrong button! That's not what I meant to do!" Paul panics over the com. "Fuck, fuck, fuck! Did Boss make it out ok?"

Patryk's mind is whirling but does a quick turn to see an escape pod safely drifting away. "Y-Yeah Boss made it ok but..."

But the mission will fail if the other two in the ship have died. With a desperate hope Patryk checks to see if his target is still drifting in space defying everything he knows and sure enough there he is. Flailing about in space.

 If he has lasted this long out here maybe his friends would too?

"Alright, alright. We've still got this. Paul, there's a chance the other two are still just... floating in the debris or something. Find them and shield them with your ship close enough to the surface they won't sustain to much fall damage then we'll head to the station to meet up with Red Leader."

He turns back to the figure flailing in space and checks his systems clock quickly.

"You've got maybe five minutes to find them, maybe less if they don't have the life support of our... friend here..."

Paul gives a grunt of acknowledgement, calmed by Patryks plan and logic, and starts his task. The other ships assisting scatter as sentinels begin approaching making a good distraction. Patryk turns back to his original task.

Their 'friend' had decided to use his jet pack to get away from Pat's ship. He wasn't sure why the man wouldn't just give up when his systems would die on him eventually, what was he exactly planning to do if he escaped? There was no easy way to a space station and the fall to the planet would be deadly. What was he thinking?

Well he'd make for fun target practice at least.

Patryk fired several shots at the fleeing figure between asteroids chasing him for two or three minutes and manages to clip his jet pack just enough it stutters.

Pat swerves around an asteroid that was in the way and just catches sight of the man's boots going around another rock.  Pat makes the turn quickly but doesn't see anyone or anything besides rocks.

He flies around the asteroid and ones near it with no signs of life. He checks his system clock. Ten minutes are up and no one could last in space without a ship longer than that.

Looks like his systems finally died on him then.

Mission accomplished, Patryk follows his compass to help Paul.

 

The asteroids left behind drift quietly through space. Debris from the destroyed ship reflect light from the distant sun and a warp drive sparks with electricity as it floats by.


End file.
